Chapter Twenty-three

It is an important and popular fact that things are not always what
they seem. For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed
that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so
much --- the wheel, New York, wars and so on --- whilst all the
dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time.
But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far
more intelligent than man --- for precisely the same reasons.

Curiously enough, the dolphins had long known of the impending
destruction of the planet Earth and had made many attempts to alert
mankind of the danger; but most of their communications were
misinterpreted as amusing attempts to punch footballs or whistle for
tidbits, so they eventually gave up and left the Earth by their own
means shortly before the Vogons arrived.

The last ever dolphin message was misinterpreted as a surprisingly
sophisticated attempt to do a double-backwards-somersault through a
hoop whilst whistling the ``Star Sprangled Banner'', but in fact the
message was this: So long and thanks for all the fish.

In fact there was only one species on the planet more intelligent than
dolphins, and they spent a lot of their time in behavioural research
laboratories running round inside wheels and conducting frighteningly
elegant and subtle experiments on man. The fact that once again man
completely misinterpreted this relationship was entirely according to
these creatures' plans.